The top security initiatives for European companies in 2014 will be data loss prevention, mobile and network-based security, and identity and access management, according to research by TechTarget and Computer Weekly.

The UK is also above the regional average when it comes to mobile device management at 40%, compared with 30%.

But overall these security priorities very closely track the top broad initiatives by European businesses for 2014 of mobility (36%), consolidation (34%) and virtualisation (34%).

Changing priorities

It is interesting to note that compliance has dropped from top position (29%) in 2013 to eighth position at 17%, possibly indicating an effort to improve security in real terms instead of achieving compliance.

Security initiatives also track the most high-profile projects for 2014, topped by server virtualisation (51%), which is in line with the goals of maintaining (14%) or reducing (12%) IT spend.

More on cloud computing

The relatively low investment in cloud security is inconsistent with the survey results, which reveal that protecting data loss is second only to regulatory compliance as a concern about cloud.

Few companies are planning to use cloud computing for security-related services, the survey revealed.

Just 20% of respondents plan to use cloud-based disaster recovery and business continuity services compared with 48% planning to use infrastructure services, followed by storage (39%).

Security as a service

Similarly, just 8% across Europe and 10% in the UK plan to use security as a service (SaaS), compared with 44% planning to use software as a service in Europe and 46% in the UK.

Interestingly, the proportion of companies that plan to use SaaS is down from 14% across Europe in 2013 and 16% in the UK.

Top projects for 2014 are in virtualisation, mobility and network optimisation

With IT departments focusing on maintaining or reducing IT spend, helping the business automate and expand support to business, top projects for 2014 are in virtualisation, mobility and network optimisation.

Security priorities are based on those goals and projects, with a heavy emphasis on vitualisation and mobile security.

However, businesses cannot afford to ignore perennial cyber threats, so it comes as no surprise that data loss prevention, encryption, threat detection and vulnerability management are fairly high among IT security priorities for 2014.

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